1 More Day...to Cling to What is Right
There is an urban legend told of a man from Vermont who got into some trouble while touring the African Safari Zoo with a group of people from Russia. He was trying to prove the effectiveness of Crazy Glue, so he rubbed some into the palm of his hands and jokingly placed them on the behind of a rhino who was walking by.
Legend has it that the rhino didn't seem to mind at first; however, when she realized that this man was stuck to her, she panicked. She ran through fences and gored a shed, stomped a few goats and ducks to their deaths...all the while with the man still stuck to her behind.
The zookeepers had to finally shoot the rhino with a tranquilizer gun. This caused the rhino to relax - in more ways than one. As the medics worked to get the man free, they had to "shield their faces from the pelting rhino dung." It took three zookeepers with shovels to keep an air passage open for the man. He was up to his neck in rhino dung.
The man did not die, nor did he suffer any major injury; however, he was covered in mess.
I just love this story. So often, we attach ourselves to the wrong things and get drug around through fences and such only to end up in a pile of mess. I can actually picture myself stuck to that rhino - she is screaming and I am screaming. Yet, I am still hanging on until I am finally in such much mess, I must be dug out.
We all have those rhinos: those things, thoughts, people, etc. that we attach ourselves to for dear life. We get beat up, bruised, and even pooped on...yet we hang on.
That is why God tells us very clearly to hang on to the things that are right.
"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." Romans 12:9
Cling - hold on tightly to; clutch; grip; grasp
Can you imagine how different our lives would be if we clung that tightly to the things that are true and right? Noble and praiseworthy? Encouraging things? Eternal things?
If we hung on dearly to the truth...to God's Word.
Let's be careful what we cling to.